Evening Cross-Dressing Legal in Tasmania

H O B A R T, Nov. 15, 2000 -- Australian men who like to throwon that little black dress for the evening cocktail hour nolonger risk arrest in the island state of Tasmania.

A 1935 law banning men from wearing female apparel inpublic between sunset and sunrise was repealed in a sweep-outof outdated laws in state parliament this week.

Gay rights campaigner Rodney Croome said on Wednesday thelaws had been used in the past to justify harassingcross-dressers.

“This change will eliminate an anachronistic and verydamaging section of Tasmanian law,” he told reporters.

Tasmania was the last Australian state or territory tolegalise homosexual acts, in 1997.

Tramps will also have an easier time of it in the smallisland — it is now legal to spend the night in a barn,outhouse or shed without having “any visible means ofsubsistence” and Tasmanian householders can now legally let“idle rogues or vagabonds” stay the night.